upon Luminous Animals . 2 6 1 
shone at every part, but most brilliantly at the genital 
organs.* 
Notwithstanding this concurrence of testimony, it is next 
to impossible, that animals so frequently before our eyes as 
the common earth worm, should be endowed with so re- 
markable a property, without every person having observed 
it. If they only enjoyed it during the season for copulation, 
still it could not have escaped notice, as these creatures are 
usually found joined together in the most frequented paths, 
and in garden walks. 
In different systems of natural history, the property of 
shining is attributed to the cancer pulex. The authorities for 
this opinion are Hablitzl, and Thules and Bernard. The 
former observed upon one occasion, a cable that was drawn 
up from the sea exhibit light, which upon closer inspection 
was perceived to be covered by these insects.-f Thules and 
Bernard reported that they met with a number of this 
species of cancer on the borders of a river, entirely luminous. J 
I am nevertheless disposed to question the luminous property 
of the cancer pulex, as I have often had the animal in my 
possession, and never perceived it emit any light. 
The account given by Linneus of the scolopendra phos- 
phorea, is so improbable and inconsistent, that one might be 
led to doubt this insect's existence, particularly as it does not 
appear to have been ever seen, except by Ekeberg, the 
Captain of an East Indiaman, from whom Linneus learnt its 
history. 
* journal de Physique, Tome XVI. 
f Hablitzl ap. Pall. n. Nord. Beytr. 4, p. 356. 
t Journal de Physique, Tome XXVIIIo . ; 
mdcccx. M m 
